Microsoft has employed former OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and co-founder Greg Brockman.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made the announcement in a post on X.
“We’re extremely excited to share the news that Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, together with colleagues, will be joining Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team. We look forward to moving quickly to provide them with the resources needed for their success.” Said Nadella.
Altman confirmed he was joining Microsoft by reposting Nadella’s announcement with the message “the mission continues.” on X
Sam Altman was CEO of OpenAI until he was fired on Friday.
The OpenAI board announced Sam’s exit on Friday in a blogpost.
The board said in the post that Sam “was not consistently candid in his communications with the board”, and the board “no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI.”
The company also announced in the post that co-founder and president Greg Brockman will be stepping down as chairman of the board but remain at the company.
Brockman however posted on X shortly after it was published, that he had quit “based on today’s news”.
The shocking news stirred speculations and news of negotiations to bring Altman back to OpenAI over the weekend.
The negotiations failed, as OpenAI’s four-person board reportedly refused to step down and let Altman return.
Emmett Shear, former CEO and Co-founder of Twitch was made interim CEO after Mira Murat, former CTO at OpenAI occupied the position briefly.
After the weekend of failed negotiations to potentially bring Altman back to OpenAI, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that both Sam Altman and Greg Brockman will be joining to lead Microsoft’s new advanced AI research team.
A week before, Microsoft announced it has built its own custom AI chip that can be used to train large language models and potentially avoid a costly reliance on Nvidia.
Microsoft has also built its own Arm-based CPU for cloud workloads. Both custom silicon chips are designed to power its Azure data centers.
Reports say that Microsoft still has a “multibillion dollar investment ” in OpenAI. Microsoft is the exclusive cloud partner for OpenAI, and Microsoft’s cloud services power all OpenAI workloads across products, API services, and research.
Nadella in his post assured of Microsoft’s continuous commitment to the partnership with OpenAI.
“We remain committed to our partnership with OpenAI and have confidence in our product roadmap, our ability to continue to innovate with everything we announced at Microsoft Ignite, and in continuing to support our customers and partners,” Nadella said in his statement.
“We look forward to getting to know Emmett Shear and OpenAI’s new leadership team and working with them.”
